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Yao was a #1 pick, jianlian was a top 10 pick as well. I can see why lin went undrafted and it has nothing to do with his race. He could not cut it on any competitive teams and ended up getting minutes on the worst team in the league for diversity reasons. Would he get a contract if he was African American? Many players didnt think so. Compare that to barea who was a huge part of a title winning team but never complained about being an underdog due to his ethnicity. Pointing out the obvious here.

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I think the question about race was more about why he didn't get recruited by any D1 colleges (other than the Ivy League) coming out of high school than it was about getting drafted in the NBA. In HS, he was the star player of his HS team that won a California state championship, but no D1 schools other than Harvard and Brown were interested.

His college career was good, with his best games coming against strong programs like UConn (where he outplayed Kemba Walker and UConn's coach said that Lin was "the best guard on the floor") and he was a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award (award to the best collegiate point guard). I agree that getting drafted in the NBA doesn't always work out, but he was a legitimate consideration for it (see Morey's comment about his system identifying Lin as a player that should have been taking in the middle of the 1st round).

As far as "not cutting it on any competitive teams", not sure how you can say that. He helped the Knicks, Rockets and Hornets get to the playoffs, playing significant minutes (25+mpg) on all of those teams despite coming off the bench in Houston and Charlotte. Lakers were tanking when he was there and he was injured with the Nets. Did he make mistakes as a young player? Sure. But to say that he hasn't played well enough to be a legitimate NBA player is ridiculous. I agree that at this point in his career, he's probably not going to get any better than he has shown...but I think much of that was situational, and that if he had more support from his coaches, he could have developed into a player like Dragic or Conley. At this point, with the combination of the lack of development, his injuries and his age, he's best suited as a backup combo guard.

BTW, I am now open to the idea of Rockets signing Melo to a minimum contract....

....and then trading him mid season to the Hawks for a pick or something or whatever.

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Lin jerseys might be valuable in the future if people keep burning them. Can you blame anyone for burning them though? He has yet to find a home in any team-fan's heart. Player-fan heart? Becoming debatable...

That's not what he said when he wasn't "drafted". He played the whole racist thing up, got himself endorsements , hype and contracts based on that, but scouts were not racist against Yao or Li Jianlan. Just play ball like all the successful minorities have done instead of milking narratives. The only thing his career proved was scouts are smart, not racist.

I think the question about race was more about why he didn't get recruited by any D1 colleges (other than the Ivy League) coming out of high school than it was about getting drafted in the NBA. In HS, he was the star player of his HS team that won a California state championship, but no D1 schools other than Harvard and Brown were interested.

His college career was good, with his best games coming against strong programs like UConn (where he outplayed Kemba Walker and UConn's coach said that Lin was "the best guard on the floor") and he was a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award (award to the best collegiate point guard). I agree that getting drafted in the NBA doesn't always work out, but he was a legitimate consideration for it (see Morey's comment about his system identifying Lin as a player that should have been taking in the middle of the 1st round).

As far as "not cutting it on any competitive teams", not sure how you can say that. He helped the Knicks, Rockets and Hornets get to the playoffs, playing significant minutes (25+mpg) on all of those teams despite coming off the bench in Houston and Charlotte. Lakers were tanking when he was there and he was injured with the Nets. Did he make mistakes as a young player? Sure. But to say that he hasn't played well enough to be a legitimate NBA player is ridiculous. I agree that at this point in his career, he's probably not going to get any better than he has shown...but I think much of that was situational, and that if he had more support from his coaches, he could have developed into a player like Dragic or Conley. At this point, with the combination of the lack of development, his injuries and his age, he's best suited as a backup combo guard.

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There are black players with the exact same credentials who were overlooked. I dont recall scouting ever being a bullet proof process, and there are plenty of overlooked guys of all races who prove everyone wrong. Rodman, Ginobili , Barea, marc gasol, arenas etc. That doesnt include the hardship of growing up in very low income neighborhoods without exposure like Harden.

We are dealing with a clear minority bias here, in that other like minded minorities see things with tunnel vision to prop up his value and thereby their own. The media ran with it. But the reality is scouting isnt a cant miss process and he had a lot of shortcomings as a player that were always on display save for 2 weeks with a 2nd string team. Other players have had longer hot streaks.

And he played it up. Big time. The actual talent like yu Darvish nip it in the bud, the unable lean on it to prevent being exposed. No other underdog fell back on race, although they overcame much more, with more talent, and contributed more to winning. All time did was reveal the truth, your excuses reveal nothing. Could have, should have , youre displaying a clear minority bias. An apology to the scouts is in order, but they'll never receive one.

Sorry to be blunt. Not every white man spends every waking moment trying to keep everyone else down. The society created that allows people of all races and talents to thrive was not created by your home country, but by that evil white man.

I think the question about race was more about why he didn't get recruited by any D1 colleges (other than the Ivy League) coming out of high school than it was about getting drafted in the NBA. In HS, he was the star player of his HS team that won a California state championship, but no D1 schools other than Harvard and Brown were interested.

His college career was good, with his best games coming against strong programs like UConn (where he outplayed Kemba Walker and UConn's coach said that Lin was "the best guard on the floor") and he was a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award (award to the best collegiate point guard). I agree that getting drafted in the NBA doesn't always work out, but he was a legitimate consideration for it (see Morey's comment about his system identifying Lin as a player that should have been taking in the middle of the 1st round).

As far as "not cutting it on any competitive teams", not sure how you can say that. He helped the Knicks, Rockets and Hornets get to the playoffs, playing significant minutes (25+mpg) on all of those teams despite coming off the bench in Houston and Charlotte. Lakers were tanking when he was there and he was injured with the Nets. Did he make mistakes as a young player? Sure. But to say that he hasn't played well enough to be a legitimate NBA player is ridiculous. I agree that at this point in his career, he's probably not going to get any better than he has shown...but I think much of that was situational, and that if he had more support from his coaches, he could have developed into a player like Dragic or Conley. At this point, with the combination of the lack of development, his injuries and his age, he's best suited as a backup combo guard.

There are black players with the exact same credentials who were overlooked. I dont recall scouting ever being a bullet proof process, and there are plenty of overlooked guys of all races who prove everyone wrong. Rodman, Ginobili , Barea, marc gasol, arenas etc. That doesnt include the hardship of growing up in very low income neighborhoods without exposure like Harden.

We are dealing with a clear minority bias here, in that other like minded minorities see things with tunnel vision to prop up his value and thereby their own. The media ran with it. But the reality is scouting isnt a cant miss process and he had a lot of shortcomings as a player that were always on display save for 2 weeks with a 2nd string team. Other players have had longer hot streaks.

And he played it up. Big time. The actual talent like yu Darvish nip it in the bud, the unable lean on it to prevent being exposed. No other underdog fell back on race, although they overcame much more, with more talent, and contributed more to winning. All time did was reveal the truth, your excuses reveal nothing. Could have, should have , youre displaying a clear minority bias. An apology to the scouts is in order, but they'll never receive one.

Sorry to be blunt. Not every white man spends every waking moment trying to keep everyone else down. The society created that allows people of all races and talents to thrive was not created by your home country, but by that evil white man.

Ok, sure...how high his potential was is debatable. My point tho is that he probably won’t reach his potential because of the variety of circumstances in the NBA, but that he still has played well enough to prove he belongs in the league.

Btw...I used Conley because Conley is IMHO one of those PGs who is more about how he plays style-wise than he is about pure athleticism.

It's been proven one entitled, privileged ivy league student will always blow steam up the other. That is the culture at places like Yale, Harvard etc. to create a PC atmosphere. But PC has little to do with the facts.

Yi Jianlin was the 7th pick in the draft. Was racism missing that year?

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